TheSecond Niger bridge is aNigerian Federal Government project that is 1.6 km (0.99 mi) long and furnished with other ancillary infrastructure including a 10.3 km (6.4 mi) highway,Owerri interchange and a toll station all at Obosi city nearOnitsha, inaugurated in March 2022.^[1][2] It opened for local traffic on December 15, 2022.^[3]

Second Niger Bridge
Second Niger bridge in Oct, 2022
Coordinates	6°07′12″N6°45′18″E / 6.1199°N 6.755°E /6.1199; 6.755
Locale	Asaba,Nigeria
Maintained by	Federal Ministry of Works and Housing
Website	www.second-river-niger-bridge.com
Characteristics
Total length	1.63 km (1.01 mi)
History
Construction start	September 1, 2018
Construction end	May 23, 2023
Construction cost	₦336 Billion
Inaugurated	May 2023; 2 years ago (May 2023)
Location

The Second Niger Bridge crosses theNiger between the cities ofAsaba the capital of Delta State which is rich in oil^[4] in the west andOnitsha in the east. When completed, it will be the last bridge over the Niger River before it branches into itsdelta arms. The Niger is the third longest river in Africa after theNile and theCongo. It moves 7,000 m³/s water at Onitsha, which is more than a hundred times as much as theThames inLondon (65 m³/s) and almost three times as much as theMissouri river (2,450 m³/s) before reachingSt. Louis. The Niger also separates Nigeria's populous southwest from the oil-rich southeast. The currently only bridge at Onitsha, a 1960s steel truss structure with two lanes, is hopelessly overloaded, due in no small part to the fact that it must accommodate flying traders, handcart drivers, cargo-carrying people and the occasional herd of goats in addition to (andbetween) cars.^[5]

The phraseSecond Niger Bridge, may sound misleading as there are already seven major bridges over the Niger in Nigeria alone (not to mention in countries likeNiger orBenin). It is therefore also known as theSecond Onitsha Bridge.

The project was funded through the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) created by President Muhammadu Buhari and managed by the NSIA.

PIDF was also used to fund the construction of Lagos-Ibadan expressway and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano-Road^[6]

For the almost completed bridge (as of June 2022),

• 14,000 tonnes ofsteel were processed (which is nearly double as much iron as in theEiffel tower),
• 250,000 tonnes ofconcrete were poured (which is a little less thanTrump tower in Chicago at 310,000 tons),
• 1,468 workers were employed on the construction site itself (on site) and another 8,000 elsewhere,
• 8,700,000 man-hours were accounted for and yet 2.5 years were worked without an accident.^[7]

The structure, 1,590 m long in total, consists of two parallel prestressed concretebox girder bridges, each 14.5 m wide. The current bridges will have a length of 630 m with 5 spans with span widths of 150 m maximum. The western ramp bridge will be 755 m long and the eastern ramp bridge will be 205 m long. The bridge has been constructed using thecantilever method, while the ramp bridges will be constructed using theincremental launching method.^[8]

The Second Niger Bridge was first proposed during the 1958/69 political campaign by then candidateShehu Francis pastor of theNational Party of Nigeria (NPN).

In 1987, after warning about the state of the existingRiver Niger Bridge by the then Minister for Works and Housing Abubakar Umar, GeneralIbrahim Babangida challenged the local engineers to design The Second Niger Bridge, rising to the challenge,The Nigerian Society of Engineers called NSE Prems Limited, which subsequently delivered a masterplan. The addition of east–west railway line to the project, unfortunately the turmoil that precipitated the end ofBabangida's administration stalled the plan.

Under the subsequentmilitary governments, the projects received little attention. Upon the return to civilian rule, PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo promised to deliver a second Niger River bridge. However his administration did not carry out any major activity on the project until five days before he handed over to the then incoming administration ofUmaru Musa Yar'Adua, whenObasanjo flagged off the project inAsaba.

The incoming administration effectively inherited a ₦58.6 billion^[9] proposed cost for a six lane, 1.8 km tolled bridge, which was to be completed in three-and-half years. The bridge was to be financed under a public private partnership (PPP) with 60 per cent of the funding coming from the contractor, Gitto Group; 20 per cent from theFederal Government of Nigeria, and 10 per cent from theAnambra andDelta State Governments. Unfortunately the subsequent death ofPresident Yar'adua marred the progress of the project.

However, in August 2012, theFederal Executive Council underJonathan's administration, approved a contract worth ₦325 million for the final planning and design of the bridge. During the2011 Nigerian general election campaign period,Jonathan has promised that if elected, he would deliver the project before the end of his term in 2015. At an Onitsha town hall meeting on August 30, 2012, he promised to go into exile if he did not deliver on the project by 2015.

The rigmarole continued under thePresident Muhammadu Buhari administration, who first cancelled the earlier contract in August 2015.^[10][11]

On December 15, 2022, at 9:50 local time, the bridge was opened to local traffic.^[3] Since not all connecting roads have been completed yet, makeshift roads have been created to allow the bridge to be used during the Christmas holidays. Crossing the bridge is free of charge for the time being.^[12]

6°07′12″N6°45′18″E / 6.1199°N 6.7550°E /6.1199; 6.7550